"No parent would wish harm for their child and I do not wish to harm Anakin. But not training her would be doing her a grievous wrong. Jedi use the Force from a place of calm, serenity, an understanding of our place in the universe. The way she taps it, from your emotions in the moment, is what we call the dark side. Prolonged use leads nigh-invariably to the ruin of the practitioner and those around them. Anakin, to be frank, is naturally much stronger with the Force than you are. Stronger even than I, perhaps. If she is not taught to manage that strength, provided a framework she can use to control herself- I fear it will consume her."

"I know."

"And cutting her off from her loved ones - "

"You will give her a framework. It will be unstable, and when it breaks, it will plunge her farther into the abyss than she has ever imagined is possible." She doesn't sound like she's guessing, there. 

"I've raised Anakin for nine years. I've seen the hells of this galaxy, and I've seen the ruins people make of themselves."

"You seem - kind. Considerate. Caring, and someone who will go out of her way for a child she met once. You'll harm Anakin less than I will, especially in the short term - I don't oppose her joining the Jedi. She wants to, and I'll never trap her, and... There are no good solutions to life, but - you have a chance I don't."

"You also seem sheltered."

"There are things I think you haven't realized about Anakin. That would be hard to see from such a short encounter, of course, but - that I suspect you won't realize before it's too late."

"Anakin treats the concept of rules like it was invented by psychologically bizarre aliens. She only follows rules if she's trying to please someone, and she finds it stressful to do with any accuracy. She's kind, and I have no idea where she learned that because it wasn't from me - but she cares about people, and she won't cause problems for them unnecessarily, but she has a very, very odd concept of necessity, even for a child."

"She only remained in slavery for love of her friends - if I'd been Gardulla's only hostage, I would've killed myself so Anakin wouldn't be bound, and then Anakin would've killed Gardulla or died trying. Gardulla knew that. Anakin - she loves people with an ease that terrifies me. She's scarred by the hostage situation, and - she won't protest being separated from those she loves, from being cut off from forming new loves, because if she cares for no one, then no one can be used to threaten her. And all of the morality she's ever managed is rooted in that love - you can't cut her off from attachments without cutting her off from any reason for restraint."

"But she won't succeed at avoiding forming new loves - she adores you already, and - there is a serious risk of her just replacing her personality with whatever she thinks will make you happy with her. If she's cut off from the outside world - you'll become her framework for controlling herself. Any appearance that she's actually managing her emotions out of any kind of endogenous urge will be mere illusion papering over that, and her fall into the abyss won't take long after your framework is inevitably removed."

"The way she relates to her love isn't - healthy, right now. It's actually just immensely fucked up. But concentrating that on fewer people will just undermine her foundation."

She's repeated herself, she thinks, but - this is important, and it's not the sort of thing she rehearses explaining. 

"Thank you for sharing with me. You have a perspective on Anakin that I lack. I still think that Anakin needs proper training."

"But the life of a Jedi is not for everyone, I know, especially those who were not born into it or came to it with a less than entirely free choice. It is certainly not my intent to avert the danger the dark side poses to her only to have her be torn apart from within by the attendant philosophy."

"What she's doing hasn't been - good for her. She told me her anger feels like tar poured into her chest once, and - she's been getting angrier, lately."

"I want her to have your training. I don't know how flexible your rules can be made, though."

"Formally, not very."

"However. In the past, when the galaxy was more fragmented, it was not uncommon for a Jedi Master to take an extended sabbatical, traveling the galaxy to commune with the Force on their own terms. Often they would return with one or more apprentices, padawans who bypassed the normal induction process."

"Would you be willing to do that for Anakin?"

"I would. And for you as well, if you would like."

"...Maybe."

"Give it some thought."

"I'd like to stay - where Anakin can contact me, at least."

"But she might not - want to actually travel with me."

"We can discuss that with her."

She nods. 

"I hadn't had anything else to bring up, right now, if you don't have more questions..."

"Not at the moment," she says.

"Alright."

She goes to call Anakin back in. 

Who bee-lines back to Elesse's side. "...Was the talk okay?"

"It went fine."

She nods, slowly.

Then: "Am I gonna see my mom and friends again?"

"Do you want to?" Elesse holds up a hand to forestall an immediate response. "Please take a moment to think carefully about what it would mean to you, if you couldn't."

She bites her lip and glances uncertainly at her mother. 

Who stands. "I'll check on the others," she says - squuezes Anakin's shoulder - and then steps out. 

That reduces some of Anakin's tension. 

"Dunno," she says once Shmi leaves. "I used to not see them for long stretches anyways? Gardulla only let me talk to them if I was being good, and most of them were on Tatooine all the time so I couldn't see them anyways if Gardulla had me traveling, and she wouldn't let me talk to anyone she decided to take along in case I acted up when I was going with her on trips."

"Long stretches on the order of weeks? Months?"

"Either I guess? And some people I couldn't see for longer - Gardulla did make sure I was around them enough to still like them though, so it never got to like an entire year..."

"Joining the Jedi Order would keep you away for two years at the very minimum. One does not become a padawan until they are at least twelve years old, and thirteen to fourteen is a more typical age."

"I'm nine. But I don't have a birth record, so we could just say I'm older, and I'll be very good and learn really fast anyways."